Quote of the Week...from John C. Maxwell

Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.           John C. Maxwell

John C. Maxwell is a famous leadership development trainer/teacher...I picked the above quote of his because he is discussing the concept of "react".  We all react at every moment of our lives to what's going on around us...otherwise we wouldn't survive.  Most of our reactions we are unconscious of...what I will discuss are the conscious decisions we make to react to cues we encounter...

Maxwell is making the strong point that the quality of our lives is largely a matter of personal choice.  It is important to realize this, for the more successful one becomes the more exposed he or she is to criticism from others...just look at all the businesses with their multitudes of Yelp reviews and authors with similar critiques from Goodreads.  You accomplish something worthwhile and somebody's certain to pan it...reacting negatively to this inevitability won't accomplish anything...

There are people that I would term "reactive personalities".  They tend to allow any prompt they see or hear lead them to determine what they feel, say, and do.  If there is a terrorist attack somewhere, they overreact as if they themselves are about to be attacked.  If they see some folks enjoying greater economic prosperity than themselves, they feel resentment instead of rejoicing in their friends' good fortune.  If they see someone on TV who reminds them of a negative aspect about someone they know, they're liable to suddenly turn cold toward that person for no apparent reason. These people are more likely to be regarded as "drama queens" or "prima donnas", wanting to be recognized as the "top" of whatever group they happen to be in...our president has one of the worst reactive personalities I've seen in anyone.  Another characteristic of reactive people is that they are consumed with themselves and only listen to others in order to judge them or if they themselves are the central topic of discussion.  These people are a drudge to be around, demanding loyalty without reciprocating...

The opposite of a reactive person is what John C. Maxwell is suggesting: a proactive individual lives by guiding principles that strengthen them in the face of outside pressure or influence.  Such a soul recognizes that they cannot please everyone and that there can be fulfillment in solitude and as a follower...and that true empathy with others requires a release from reacting to what they say or do and instead try to see things from their perspective.   If an election goes the wrong way, somebody cuts you off in traffic, or the president tweets something characteristically offensive, you would still be okay in not liking it but you could keep your focus on what you stand for and want to do.  This path sounds more attractive to me, not that I always make the right choices in this regard...